put on your boots

 

In the last installment I had fitted the front shocks and was planning to get the shell moved somewhere safe and dry.

To do this I need wheels and steering. I had all the metal fittings from the Imp powder coated around 1993 and they have been in storage in various tubs since then. I dug everything out and wasn’t too impressed with the condition of the parts after all the trouble I went to all those years ago to have them re-furbished (sometimes I was getting a bus with a rucksack full of bits to drop off/collect bits from the powder coaters which was about 15 miles away and other times my brother wasted his Saturday mornings taking me there) and I suspect now that the parts weren’t done very well as some of it looks pretty thin and rust is coming thru.

When assembling the suspension there is inevitably some tapping-into-place-of-parts which cracks the powder coat off (rear hub/driveshaft and front kingpin carriers for example). I wasn’t too bothered however as I will be refurbishing several area myself when the time comes so the ‘cracked off bits’ weren’t too annoying.

The various threads cleaned up well with a cheap tap & die set I bought and it is all on the car now. I was amazed at how easy it was to change the steering arm bushes:

 I have several old Yamahas motorcycles and removing the swing arm bushes on them by pressing or drawing out is practically impossible so they usually need to be cut out. I expected to have to do this with the Imp parts. The original bushes melted during the powder coating and I tried to buy ‘slave’ parts from Ebay for the move. I got a couple of NOS inner track rods but haven’t managed to locate the half with the ball joint or the long fixed one but at least I could use the bushes out of the Ebay bits. I feared I’d need to cut away the metal round the bush on one of the Ebay parts to free it and put it in the original part. For some reason I had a quick shot at pressing it out with sockets & a vice and it was out in no time : )  

using die to clean threads. no room for T-handle so used mole-grips

original Tech Del sleeve nuts wound onto newly cleaned hub studs

original front and rear hubs. actually same part both ends but if you look close my 'pairs' have different casting marks

the original rear springs - powder coated many moons ago